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THE CAUSES 



OF THE 





^PROSPERITY OF NEW-YORK. 







BY 




WILLIAM BETTS, LL. D 



f^s. 



0\mWWW 



©MtS:^MMMM^fe^:tMM^fe^o ^ tM3 ^MMMi^^oS o y ^ 



THE CAUSES OF THE PROSPERITY OE NEW-YORK. 



AN 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Si Nicl)ola5 Sorictu oi 2feu3-^Drk, 



DECEMBER 3d, 1850. 
/ 

BY WILLIAM BETTS, LL. D. 



Cui genus a proavis iugcns, clarumque paterna) 
Noineii erat virtutis. — ^n. 12. 225. 



NE W- YORK : 

STANFORD AND SWORDS, 137, BROADWAY, 

1851. 



JOHN R. M'GOWN, PRINTER, 
57 Ann-strekt. 



F\^.?) 






New- York, Dec. 7th, 1850. 
Dear Sir: 

I have the honor to hand you lierewith a Resohition passed by the St. Nicholas 
Society at tlieir Anniversary Meeting yesterday, and to express the hope tliat you 
will be pleased to comply with the same. 

With great respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

CHARLES R. SWORDS, 

Secretary. 



On motion of Chief Justice Jones, 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society are justly due, and are hereby ten- 
dered to Wi\i. Betts, Esq., for the able and eloquent address delivered before them 
on the 3d instant, and that ho bo requested to furnish a copy of the same for pre- 
servatiou by the Society. 



ANNIYERSAM ADDEESS. 



It gives me pleasure, Mr. President, on this an- 
nual occasion, to salute you, our Head ; and you, 
fellow-members, associated and assembled in this our 
ancestral city ; and you, my fair country-women, the 
mothers and sisters, wives and daughters, of the 
descendants of those respectable men, whose names 
we bear, and whose memories we delight to honor. 
Placed in the midst of a vast and ever-increasing 
population, you occupy a peculiar position. Beneath 
your paternal roofs, and beside your paternal fire- 
sides ; with the grave-stones of your progenitors for 
generations, clustering all around you ; you present 
the singular spectacle of being strangers in your 
native home. So rapid has been the growth of this 
crowded metropolis ; so immense the stream of emi- 
gration perpetually poured upon it, from every quar- 
ter, at home and abroad ; so constant and increasing 
have been the changes ; that an absence of five and 
twenty years, would render the recognition of the 
place of your nativity, or your childhood, no easy 
task. It may be that this peculiar position imposes 



6 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

peculiar duties. It may be that the vastness of the 
physical advantages bestowed on you, may bear in 
their train corresponding responsibilities : and vv^hile 
indulging in a few reflections appropriate to the occa- 
sion, upon the foundation and causes of our great 
and growing population, it may not be unbecoming 
to inquire, whether this prosperity does not impose 
proportionate duties, as well on you, the old and 
peculiar people, as on that much larger class, who 
enjoy a temporary residence, or have established a 
permanent home among us : and whether those du- 
ties have been adequately performed. In taking this 
course, it will be observed, that I have ventured to 
diverge from the usual roads of historical or tradi- 
tionary incidents : but it seemed to me, that it would 
not be uninstructive to pause and contemplate our 
present position ; to inquire calmly how and why we 
have attained it ; from the experience of the past to 
gather wisdom for the future ; to see whether we 
have done all that is required for improving and 
preserving our advantages; and, if we have not 
done all, to ascertain what remains undone ; and 
apply all our diligence and energy to supply what 
may be wanting, and to remedy what may be de- 
fective. 

When, in the month of September of the year 
16ai), nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the 
weary and sea-worn bark of Hudson rounded the 
low, sandy point that guards the narrow entrance 
to this port, and proceeded northwards through the 
opening waters, we may easily imagine the delight 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 7 

with which he watched the rich and wooded heights 
and ever- varying shores of Mattowaques^ upon his 
right ; while from the rising hills of Aquahonga,t on 
his left, was poured a flood of sweet autumnal fra- 
grance, " a stream of rich distill'd perfumes," which 
to his weary senses might have seemed 

" Sabean odors from the spicy shores 
Of Araby the blest." 

And when, after penetrating through the narrow 
passage, the hroad sheet of the expanding waters 
burst upon his eyes, with its three streams pushing 
onwards to the north, the westward, and the east, 
studded with islands and bold projections, in all their 
natural magnificence and beauty, untouched by the 
hand of man, unmarred by the desecrations of art — 
to comprehend his feelings, we must transport our- 
selves back to him and his companions ; and, sitting 
on the deck of the little yacht, Half-Moon, while its 
prow is slowly dashing before it the sparkling waters, 
we may sympathize with the mingled and tumul- 
tuous emotions which must at once have roused, 
delighted, and bewildered him. Looking upon the 
tranquil surface of the unpeopled wave; regarding 
the almost complete solitude of the surrounding 
shores ; little could he have anticipated, that the 
broadest of those streams, ennobled with his name, 
should bear upon its ample bosom thousands and 
thousands of swift barks, wafted by the winds, or 
propelled by an unknown power that after ages 

* Nassau, or Long Island. t Staten Island. 



8 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

should call into existence, freighted with the univer- 
sal products of the globe. Little could he have fore- 
seen the forests of masts and myriads of edifices 
which should thereafter cluster and crowd upon and 
around that calm and solitary point, which lay, the 
image of repose, amidst its gentle waters ; little 
imagine the spires, towers and domes that should 
rise above its roofs ; or the cares, crimes and remorse, 
the agonies and never-resting struggles, beneath 
them ; little, that on this spot, in brief, would be the 
mighty metropolis of a mighty Empire, powerful for 
good, or fearfully powerful for evil, as the virtues or 
the vices of its inhabitants might control its destinies. 
A century afterwards, could the daring adventurer 
have revisited the scene of his discovery, he would 
have observed no striking alteration in its condition. 
The early progress of the city and colony was slow, 
and gave no promise of the immense development 
they have since exhibited. Like the solid and en- 
during oak, so gradual was their growth, that it 
seemed unlikely that they ever would attain sub- 
stantial strength or magnitude. In the year 1709, 
New Amsterdam was still a village ; its population 
did not exceed five thousand persons, one-sixth of 
whom were slaves.^^ Fifty years afterwards, it had 
barely risen to thirteen thousand in the whole, in- 
cluding a similar proportion of blacks.t At this time 
the whole population of the ten counties of the State 
was less than one hundred thousand persons. It had 

* 1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., p. 691. 
■\ 1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., p. 696. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 9 

required nearly one hundred and fifty years to reach 
this point; but so rapid from that time forward began 
to be the increase, that twenty years more saw its, 
numbers doubled ; and from that period, the State 
and more especially the City, have sprung forward, 
until the latter has attained the prodigious size, 
strength and importance which we now see, and is 
yet proceeding onwards with strides more vast and 
gigantic than any which have gone before. 

The causes which have produced these results, 
exist both within and without ourselves. Those 
without, arising from the peculiar situation and cir- 
cumstances of foreign countries, it is not my purpose 
to discuss. Of those within, I shall confine the few 
and brief observations I propose to make, to the in- 
fluence of four causes: — the Geographical Position of 
this city; the Old Colonial races; the Manners of the 
colonists ; and the System of Laws and Government. 
These, if I mistake not, will be found to be the ele- 
ments of the physical prosperity of our community. 

A temperate climate, a wholesome neighborhood, 
a fruitful soil, useful and abundant products, would 
make themselves felt in the steady and gradual 
growth of an agricultural people ; but the super- 
added advantages of a capacious and secure harbor, 
accessible at all times, and possessing extensive and 
easy communication with the coast and the interior, 
would not be sensibly perceived, until a large and 
industrious population had made it a convenient 
centre of commerce. These circumstances, although 
essential to commercial greatness, are rather necessary 



10 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

means, than active causes. The IsLT,nd of Malta 
possesses similar advantages in an eminent degree ; 
and yet upon its splendid harbor stands no imperial 
seat of commerce. The natural superiority of Alex- 
andria existed before the eagle eye of the Macedonian 
conqueror espied it; and yet, no effect was produced, 
until his sagacious mind applied the proper means 
for its development: and in many commercial places, 
which it would be needless to mention, trade has 
declined, and prosperity faded away, when the geo- 
graphical and physical circumstances, under which 
they rose and flourished, remained in all respects 
unaltered. The central and commanding position of 
this city, in the midst of the advantages before 
recited, united with its peculiar capacity for estab- 
lishing a cluster of trading cities all around, although 
greatly contributing to its majestic growth, could not 
alone have produced it. Its peculiar adaptation to 
the acquisition of wealth, no doubt, attracted many 
to it, and operated strongly to draw hitherward the 
stream of emigration. Other causes, of a deeper 
nature, sustained and swelled the flood ; and those 
were, as has been previously mentioned, the People 
or Races who planted and settled the colony ; the 
manners, dispositions and morals which prevailed 
among them ; and the laws and institutions which 
they here established. 

The precise point of time at which the people of 
this City and its vicinity attained that maturity, 
and assumed those characteristics, which distinguish 
them from all the other people of the New World, 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 11 

and which, in connection with their physical posi- 
tion and their political and moral organization, have 
drawn to them an immense population and a com- 
manding commerce, cannot be fixed with any minute 
exactness ; but the beginning of the Eighteenth cen- 
tury, (or a period stretching from the year 1700 to 
the year 1750,) may be safely taken as finding them 
possessing an accurate and defined national character. 
About this time the City and province may be con- 
sidered as having assumed a historical attitude. The 
Dutch government, which essentially terminated in 
1664, had been, in a degree, ambiguous and indefi- 
nite ; the mode in which it was subordinate to the 
home sovereignty, and the extent of that sovereignty 
having been little understood. Emerging from that 
condition to the Proprietary government of the Duke 
of York, the principles on which it should be con- 
ducted were equally obscure : but at the period, 
which I have named, the Ducal had been converted 
into a Royal government; and the pretensions of the 
Royal governors, who acted solely and simply under 
commissions from the crown, although extravagant 
and inadmissible, had at least the merit of being 
perfectly intelligible. At that period, legislation had 
assumed substantially the same form which it bears 
at the present time ; and the j udicial system was 
conducted upon the same great principles which still 
continue to control it. The People may therefore 
be said then to have attained a decided character ; 
one, which was to stamp its impress on the place, 
and on posterity ; one, by which it was to stand, or 



12 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

fall ; one, which should attract, or repel, emigration ; 
and one, the excellence or defects of which might 
fairly be measured by its results. 

The Races, whose combination formed this char- 
acter, were, as is well known, mainly derived from 
Holland and from England; the admixture of French 
which Avas, at a then recent period, infused, having 
happily contributed to it a greater universality. It 
is curious to observe how closely the Dutch and the 
English were connected, in the discovery, settlement, 
and peopling of this colony. The English claimed 
sovereignty over it, from the general discoveries of 
Cabot ; the Dutch, from the specific voyage of Hud- 
son. The expedition of 1609 was of Dutch origin, 
conducted under Dutch authority, at Dutch risk, and 
for Dutch benefit: the Commander of that expedition 
was an Englishman. The crew of the Half-Moon, 
probably the first European vessel which ever entered 
these waters, and the first of the entry of which there 
is unquestionable evidence,^ was composed of both 
Dutch and English ; and in an old narrative, the 
settlement on this island is described as being, in the 
year 1G48, "a pretty town of trade, having more 
English than Dutch."t 

As the Colony increased in numbers, the numeri- 
tal proportion of the people of both races continued 
oc be not dissimilar. The eastern part of Long 
Island was wholly English ; the western, Dutch ; in 

* Note I, post. 

t Description of New Albion, 1648. See 1 N. Y. Hist.CoU., New 
Series, p. 335. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 13 

the middle portion they were intermingled, the Eng- 
lish preponderating in the north, and the Dutch in 
the south ; and as names of places may be considered 
as historical indexes of their inhabitants, especially in 
colonies, it may be remarked that the Eastern names 
were adopted from. England ; the western from Hol- 
land ; while in the middle, where the races inter- 
mingled, the names fluctuated ; and we find, among 
others, the old Dutch appellation of Middleborough 
yielding to the modern name of New Town, and 
Rusdorpe absorbed in the euphonious Indian Yameco, 
most barbarously and unmeaningly anglicized into 
Jamaica:^ and we may add, that in the ducal 
assembly convened at Hempstead in 1665, which 
enacted or compiled a Book of Lawst long after- 
wards used as the code of the provinces, the deputies 
or delegates of the several towns were of both Dutch 
and English origin ; some of them progenitors of 
families who yet remain prominent among us.J 

In this City, the population was both Dutch and 
English ; while near the head of the navigable 
waters of the Hudson, the settlements were purely 
of the former people. The Dutch and English races, 
therefore, with an infusion of the French, were the 
stock whose mingled mass composed, at the period 
which I have indicated, the first half of the eight- 
eenth century, the population of this City and its 
vicinity. It may not be uninstructive to glance at 

* Thompson's Long Island. 

t Gov. Andros' Rep., 1G78. 1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., 88, 89. 

t Wood's Long Island. 



14 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

the circumstances — and a "bare glance is all that can 
be allowed — which contributed to produce from these 
materials a new and peculiar people. 

The Dutch are a people not unknown in the 
classic annals of antiquity. Their fame and their 
achievements are embalmed in the page of the his- 
torian Tacitus, who celebrates their virtue and their 
valor. '' The Batavians, a Cattian tribe/'^ says this 
observant and acute writer, "are distinguished among 
the neighboring nations for their valor. Incorporated 
into the Roman Empire, they still preserve their in- 
tegrity and civilization ;" and so great was the repu- 
tation which they acquired for skill and bravery in 
the Germanic wars, that Batavian cohorts, or Dutch 
regiments, were employed by the Romans in their 
fearful conflicts with the Britons. Nor did they fail, 
in those fierce and dreadful wars, to sustain and 
increase the reputation which they had formerly ac- 
quired. In the Seventeenth century, the countrymen 
of Tromp and De liuyter had not degenerated from 
the warlike qualities of their Batavian ancestors ; 
and in the gentler incidents of peace, industry, per- 
severance, energy, honesty, and enterprize, the people 
of the States-General were surpassed by no European 
community. Their then thriving and extensive col- 
onies exhibited their skill, commercial genius, and 
activity in the business of life ; the finish, the exact- 
ness and perfection of their pictorial works, displayed 
the delicacy of their taste, and their progress in the 
refined arts; and their intellectual elevation was 

* Tac. Germania, c. 29. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 15 

attested- by the productions of such minds as those 
of AVicquefort, Bynkershoek, and Grotius : the two 
latter of whom particularly, different as they were 
in the tone and temper of their minds, and character 
of their reasoning; yet, by their combined power, 
restored to order and system th-e chaos of public law 
on which Europe had been wildly tost, and kindled 
into a broad and bright blaze those flickerings and 
glimmerings of national rights and duties which had 
been feebly burning in Italy and England.* Of 
Hugh De Groot, who, in accordance with the fashion 
of the times, assumed the name of Grotius, it may 
be deemed presumptuous that so humble an individ- 
ual should speak at all. But the descendants of his 
countrymen may not be displeased at a passing 
tribute to the merit and the memory of one who 
added to the qualities of an accomplished scholar, a 
profound philosopher, and an enlightened publicist, 
the attainments of a learned theologian, and the 
devotion of a sincere and humble Christian. To 
estimate the merit of Hugo Grotius, we should, if 
possible, identify ourselves with his position ; and 
thus only will we be enabled to perceive the great 
abilities, indomitable energy, unfaltering courage, 
and thorough conviction of right, which enabled him 
to produce, promulgate and establish a system by 
which power should be controlled by right ; the ex- 
cesses of anger and violence restrained ; the maxirn 
reversed, that laws are silent amid arms ; war itself 
subjected to salutary rules ; and nations, however 

* Note 2. 



16 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

potent or ambitious, taught that their interest as well 
as their duty compelled them to bow to the require- 
ments of justice and of mercy. The great work of 
this eminent jurist has established him as the father 
of modern Public Law; and, as might have been 
expected, his conspicuous position has exposed him 
to no small measure both of censure and of praise. 
Gentle as was his nature, he sometimes allowed a 
degree of severity that more modern axioms would 
discountenance, and more modern usage has disal- 
lowed ; but in those cases, he seems rather to have 
yielded to authority than conviction ; and the be- 
nevolent principle which pervades his system har- 
monizes with the more humane practices of modern 
times. The exuberance of his intellectual treasures, 
and the profusion with which he pours them forth, 
invoking all ancient and modern literature, philoso- 
phy, and history sacred and profane, to sustain and 
illustrate his theories and reasonings, while they 
instruct and delight, almost bewilder the student; 
and we are left at a loss whether most to wonder at 
the industry which could acquire such an affluence 
of knowledge, at the memory which could retain and 
reproduce it, or at the order and judgment which 
could direct so masterly an adaptation to the object 
had in view. Such men exhibit the genius of the 
nation ; and the character of the Dutch was thus in 
fact distinguished for advancement in the useful 
arts, for refinement, and for intellectual superiority, 
more particularly in those branches which tend to 
reform, regulate and elevate the intercourse of na- 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 17 

tions ; and such may be supposed to have been the 
general character of the colonists at a corresponding 
period. 

Nor were the circumstances of the English colo- 
nists less peculiar. The distracted state of England, 
from the reign of the first James to the accession of 
Anne, is well known. The changes in the religion 
of the country had distarbed the lethargy of ages, 
and had provoked inquiry, and produced restlessness 
just in proportion to the indifference which had for- 
merly prevailed. Diversities of opinion existed in 
regard to the extent of the reforms ; and these diver- 
sities, as is too usual, were pressed with little temper 
or moderation, and grew wider and wider, until at 
length they became incapable of being reconciled. 
Questions of civil polity soon sprung from these 
religious dissentions : the sacred rights of conscience, 
(rights often vague, mysterious and unintelligible,) 
were invoked to justify the intemperate conduct of 
both parties ; and the contest naturally led to those 
appalling scenes which deluged the kingdom in 
blood during the reign of the first Charles, and 
which began to subside, only when, in the persons 
of William and of Mary, England and Holland sat 
side by side upon the ancient throne of Alfred. 
Whatever difference of opinion may exist among the 
men of the present day — and certain it is, that few, 
even now, contemplate the proceedings of those stir- 
ring times without a partisan bias — whatever diver- 
sities of judgment may now exist as to the actors 
and the actions of that exciting period, none can 



18 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

doubt, that it was a time of most extraordinary 
intellectual activity and energy. The edifice of po- 
litical society was overthrown ; the foundation which 
supported it, upheaved ; and every part of the ground 
on which it stood, minutely scrutinized. Antiquity 
ceased to be respectable simply because it was an- 
cient ; and men began to inquire, whether old things 
were right, with a violence and passion unbecoming 
alike to the persons and the subject. The men of 
that age were, of necessity, forced to be thinking 
men. In the agitations which then convulsed soci- 
ety, no man was allowed to remain neutral. He 
was compelled to join one or the other faction, under 
the penalty of becoming odious and contemptible to 
both. Under those circumstances, the country teemed 
with men of action and of thought : and just those 
'men came over to our shores, to co-operate with the 
Netherlanders in the settlement of this colony. Let 
it not be supposed that they came here with revolu- 
tionary ideas, or lawless desires. The very violence 
of the parties abroad had resulted from a thorough 
conviction that each was right; and they brought 
hither with them, united with a bold independence 
of thought, a thorough conviction of the requirements 
of duty. The deplorable scenes which they and their 
fathers had witnessed had sickened them of dissen- 
sions, and made them long for quiet ; and although 
they well understood their own rights as men, and 
were prepared, when injured, to sustain and vindi- 
cate them, they likewise knew and respected the 
rights of others ; and from the calamities of war they 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 10 

had learned to value the blessings of repose. vSuch 
was the character of the second race, whose cotem- 
poraneous emigration peopled these shores. Bold, 
intelligent, inquiring, just, and pacific ; emerging 
from a long struggle, with a thorough appreciation 
of their rights, as men, citizens and subjects, they 
were well adapted to amalgamate with a people, 
from whom had sprung a system which thoroughly 
comprehended and strongly enforced the 7'ights and 
duties of onen, as 7nenibers of a family of nations. 

There was still a third element wanting to pro- 
duce the peculiar combination of character which 
we suppose here to exist; and that element we 
imagine can be found in the persecuted emigrants 
from France. The religious agitations and excesses 
of that country had driven from it large numbers of 
its most excellent and estimable people ; many of 
whom took refuge in Holland and in England ; and 
some reached our distant shores. The character of 
those people is shown by their history. Intelligent 
and discriminating, they had been able to distinguish 
between ancient errors and ancient faith ; and in 
choosing the latter, they had the courage to endure 
imprisonment, torture, and death, rather than aban- 
don vital truths : and when driven at length, by 
bloody and faithless persecution, into exile, they 
brought with them the clear heads, pure minds, and 
bold hearts, which had produced their expatriation, 
and which qualified them to endure it. 

Here then we find the three sources of the pecu- 
liar character of our people ; a character which, from 



20 ANNINERSARY ADDRESS. 

the variety and combination of its elements, very 
early ceased to be provincial ; and assumed a metro- 
politan appearance quite out of proportion to the 
actual dimensions of the place. It becomes the De- 
scendants of the men of those days to look back upon 
them with reverence. Derived from races respect- 
ively distinguished as the champions of National free- 
dom, of Civil freedom, and of Religious freedom, the 
people in whom their principles were associated and 
combined, could not but experience a most favorable 
effect upon their manners, from the expansion of 
their minds, and their ideas : and the enforced habit 
of yielding the little peculiarities and prejudices 
which might be offensive, or even unpleasant to 
others, created an enlargement of benevolence, and 
liberality of conduct, which excluding exclusiveness, 
fitted them for the reception of strangers ; and thus 
their numbers were rapidly augmented by an influx 
from all countries, of those who were enabled to 
avail themselves of the natural advantages of the 
place, while they were received with more cordiality, 
mingled with more freedom, and were more thor- 
oughly incorporated with the citizens, than would 
have been possible in any unmixed population. 

These liberal and cordial manners, in connection 
with the peculiar position and character of the three 
races, at that time producing a high tone of feeling 
and morals, may be accounted the tlurd cause of the 
rapid, and at the same time, solid development of 
this vicinity. The fourth may be found in their 
public polity and laws. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS oj 

The public 'polity was essentially based upon the 
English Constitution, influenced, modified, and I may- 
add, liberalized by the Dutch and French associa- 
tions. The imitation of the English Constitution 
was, however, by no means servile. A colony or 
province they admitted themselves to be ; but they 
distinguished colonies from dependencies, and prov- 
inces from servitudes. The European Colonial 
System, as it is denominated by publicists, which 
has attained so gigantic a stature, was then in its 
infancy. The principle upon which the Greek colo- 
nies, and the Roman provinces and colonies were 
established, was little understood, and less regarded. 
Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and England, were 
grasping at an immense control over the newly- 
discovered portions of the world, which, under the 
fair-sounding name of colonial depend ance, should 
establish actual political servitude over vast regions 
of this globe. The real object was, by means of 
commercial advantages, to aggrandize the mother 
country, without much reference to the rights or 
interests of the colonists. The lucid and upright 
mind of the Dutch Grotius had reflected on this 
subject, and seen it in its proper light. In his great 
work, he devotes but few sentences to colonial rela- 
tions ; but those sentences are convincing and de- 
cisive. He adopts distinctly the sentiments found 
in the old writers, Thucidides, and Dionysius of 
Halicarnassus, " that colonists should be treated as 
equals, and not as tributaries or dependants;" and 
that the maxim, "that colonists by a species of 



•22 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

natural necessity must be subject to the mother 
country," has no foundation either in justice or in 
reason.^ This was a great truth ; a knowledge of 
which would have saved modern nations, masses of 
treasure, and rivers of blood. This Colonial System, 
so arrogant in its inception, and mischievous in its 
effects, was not received with favor here. The peo- 
ple of New- York, so far as I. know, were the first 
among these Cis-Atlantic provinces, jniblicly and 
clearly to assert their independence of cdl foreign 
legislation, and utterly to repudiate the prevailing 
doctrine of colonial servitude. Virginia, Massachu- 
setts, and Connecticut, had intimated the justice of 
the rule in various ways ; but New- York was, '1 
think, the first to announce it by legislative enact- 
ment. The very first act of the Assembly of 1691, 
was the promulgation of this principle ; and it did 
so in the most unequivocal language, when saving 
their allegiance to the reigning sovereigns, they 
declared that under no pretence whatever should 
external power be exercised within this province.! 

The general tone of their legislation was in 
harmony with the independence exhibited on this 
occasion; and displayed wisdom, moderation, and 
liberality. The laws provided ample security for 
persons and property; protected morals; promoted 
those physical conveniences which encourage indus- 
try, and augment wealth ; made a prudent provision 
for the energetic and efficient administration of 

* Grot, de Jure, B. & P., L. 2, c. 9, k 10. 
t Laws, 1691, chap. 1. See Note 3, post. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 23 

justice ; and allowed a free exercise of religious 
worship, with the single exception of the distrusted 
and detested heresy of Rome. Nor should we won- 
der at this exception : for the dreadful scenes Avhich 
had been enacted both in England and on the Con- 
tinent, and the frightful disasters from which the 
people had escaped, warned them to beware, how 
they admitted into the State persons professing 
tenets, which appeared to be incompatible with 
order, secure government, or morals. The laws thus 
assured to individuals coming hither, advantages, 
political, social, domestic, and religious, which could 
with difficulty, perhaps could not at all, elsewhere 
be found within the limits of the American settle- 
ments ; and in this way, the Four Causes of Geo- 
graphical Position, Races, Manners, and Polity, laid 
the foundation of a growth and prosperity, which have 
certainly been developed in a very remarkable degree. 
How far these causes still subsist, may be a 
matter of serious reflection. Our physical advan- 
tages still exist in an eminent degree : our readiness 
to receive strangers, and to advance them, even to 
the exclusion of the sons of the soil, has become 
proverbial : but whether the tone of morals be as 
pure, whether legislation be as prudent and judicious^ 
may well be doubted : and although the prospect of 
wealth, and a hospitable reception, will for a long 
time draw numbers to us, and we may still appear 
to be prosperous; such prosperity cannot endure 
where morals are low, or legislation is unsound. 
"Trade," said a learned prelate of the English 



24 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 

Church a hundred years ago, commenting on the 
splendor and the fall of Tyre,^ " trade is a fluctua- 
ting thing. It passed from Tyre to Alexandria, from 
Alexandria to Venice, from Venice to Antwerp, from 
Antwerp to Amsterdam and London." He described 
it as a sensitive and tender plant; and particularly 
cautioned those engaged in it against licentiousness, 
which leads to anarchy, riot, tumults, debauchery, 
extravagance, and meanness; and brings ruin upon 
credit, commerce, and liberty itself " Neither king- 
doms," he added, " nor commonwealths, neither pub- 
lic companies, nor private persons, can long carry on 
a beneficial, flourishing trade without virtue, and 
what virtue teacheth, sobriety, industry, frugality, 
modesty, honesty, punctuality, humanity, charity, 
the love of our country, and the fear of God. The 
Prophets will inform us how the Tyrians lost it ; and 
the like causes will always produce the like effects." 
The lesson which this wise man has taught us, 
should not, my fellow-members, and fellow-citizens, 
fall upon deaf or undiscerning ears. When we are 
called upon to display the glories of this " great 
Babylon which we have built," our hearts swell 
with vanity and exultation. We point to the mul- 
titude and the magnificence of our marine, encircling 
like a forest, our extended shores ; to the tributary 
cities and villages scattered around, whose clustering 
roofs and tall and tapering spires are reflected in the 
smooth waters of the rivers and the bay; lines of 
warehouses, groaning with the productions of the 

* Newton on the Prophecies. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 25 

whole globe ; palatial marts, controlling the com- 
merce of the conntry, and influencing the movements 
of the world ; leagues of expensive edifices, furnished 
and adorned with every luxury that ostentation can 
devise, or art produce ; shops, the architectural deco- 
rations and internal equipments of which are designed 
and adapted to dazzle and delight ; a stupendous 
aqueduct, rivaling the grandeur of imperial Rome ; 
to the display of every convenience that ingenuity 
can devise, and every luxury that affluence can 
desire ; to our immense wealth, increasing magni- 
tude, and boundless prospects ; to our progress in 
arts and elegance, our advance, as we suppose, in 
civilization : and for these we demand the respect, 
the admiration, and the homage of the world. But 
we forget that in proportion to the magnitude of our 
gifts, is the magnitude of our duties. We forget 
that all these things are absolutely idle, and will 
surely come to nought, if there be not a correspond- 
ing development of what alone is valuable, the good 
qualities of the mind and of the heart. If those 
qualities be not nurtured and matured, our physical 
acquisitions will be a silent and perpetual reproof; 
and their nurture and maturing should be felt to be 
the duty, not only of the community, as such, but of 
each individual, and especially of those on whom 
Providence has bestowed abundant means. To us, 
whose fathers here found their homes and their 
graves, and who look here to find the homes and the 
graves of ourselves and our children, these reflections 
cannot be without effect. To those who, coming 



20 A N N I V P: R S A R Y A D D R ESS. 

I'roiii without, have here found a welcome, affluence, 
and friends, I must not allow myself to doubt, that 
the suggestion alone has been wanting to induce 
them to devote to those purposes a portion of their 
ample means ; that with this view they will here 
promote religious instruction, and foster profound 
and sound learning ; and that they will hasten to 
discharge a debt, the payment of which is demanded 
alike by gratitude and duty. Could we be taught 
that the mind and the heart alone are worthy of our 
care ; that the objects of this life are valueless save 
as they are the prelude of a life to come ; and that 
acquisitions and possessions are nothing worth, ex- 
cept as instruments of kindness, and as means of 
good ; we then would see that religion and learning 
are the only sure foundations of our welfare. Then, 
without neglecting or undervaluing the charms of 
elegant accomplishments, the pleasures of refined 
society, the indulgence in innocent luxuries, and 
the appreciation of beauty and grace in sight, in 
sound, or in whatever form presented, (a proper 
enjoyment of which Providence wisely designs to 
elevate the sentiments and humanize the heart,) 
then would we look elsewhere than to our physical 
greatness, for subjects of gratulation, and of pride. 
We would exhibit our churches sufficient in number, 
and ample in space, with open doors ever ready 
gratuitously to receive the poor, and desks prepared 
to instruct the ignorant and reform the vicious. We 
would point to their pastors, provided with means, 
not barely enough to eke out a miserable subsistence, 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 27 

but liberally furnished, as almoners of our abundance, 
to relieve the destitute, whose wants can seldom 
reach the knowledge of their rich and busy brothers. 
We would show our overflowing libraries ; our semi- 
naries and establishments of learning and science, 
well endowed and well supported, commensurate in 
number and importance with the greatness of our 
abilities, with ample faculties adapted to acquire and 
to impart that liberal learning, without which all 
learning would soon cease to exist. We would seek 
to multiply our private charities in such a way that 
they might become instruments of real good. We 
would honor intelligence, integrity, and truth, and 
discountenance presumption, dishonesty, and false- 
hood, no matter how eminent or how powerful might 
be the individual in whom they appeared. We 
would, in a word, be constantly impressed with the 
conviction, that we have no right to expect a con- 
tinuance of the great prosperity that has hitherto 
been granted to us, unless we employ it justly, 
beneficently, and for legitimate and proper purposes. 
Should we so employ it, we may hope that the 
greatness which we have attained, may still farther 
be augmented. Should we not so employ it, this 
very greatness will be a censure and a shame. We 
cannot expect the experience of history to be reversed 
in our favor. If we do well, we may look for good ; 
but if we will follow the pernicious examples of 
Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, we should neither 
be surprised nor murmur, if, when perhaps least 
looked for, we meet their fearful fate. 



NOTES. 



Note 1. — Page 12. 

Some doubt has been thrown upon the fact of the first discovery of this River 
by the Dutch. John Verazzano is supposed, in his voyage in 1524, to have entered 
the harbor, now of New-York. There is some obscurity in his relation ; and 
although we cannot admit his description as clearly applicable to this harbor, neither 
can we wholly reject it. Be that as it may, upon the supposition that he did enter 
it, a mere visit, wholly unproductive and without consequences of any description, 
barely deserves to be mentioned. See Verazzano' s Voyage in 1524, in New-York 
Historical Collections, 2d Series, Vol. I. 



Note 2.— Page 1 5. 

In writing the foregoing sentence, I had particularly in my mind the work of 
Succaria, an Italian writer who condemned the slaughter of the unhappy Conradin ; 
and of Albericus Gentilis, who filled the chair of Law in the University of Oxford. 
I did not intend either to underrate or omit the claims which Spain might possess 
to distinction from the labors of Francisco de Victoria, or of Dominic Soto, both of 
the University of Salamanca ; or of Francisco Suarez, upon whom Sir James 
Mackintosh pronounced a marked eulogium. 



Note 3. — Page 22. 

I think that I have given the fair interpretation to this Act. No reader of the 
annals of Colonial British America can be insensible to the high tone which per- 
vaded the sentiments and distinguished the actions of the other colonies, and par- 
ticularly Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, in the earlier times. Their 
words and actions display a noble chapter in History ; and one which remains 
yet to be distinctly apprehended, and truly appreciated. That New- York partici- 
pated in these sentiments cannot be doubted ; nor that she intended to announce 
them, and was the first so to do, as stated in the text. In so doing she used guarded 
and loyal language ; but it is manifest that the authority of the British Parliament 
was distinctly repudiated ; and it is still more manifest, when taken in connection 
with the very next act, re-affirming many of the provisions of Magna Charta, and 
enunciating a Bill of Rights. 














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